Soaring section

I confess to being pleasantly surprised by the overall quality and comprehensiveness of the massive profile of Albany in the April issue of US Airways magazine. It goes on and on and on — stretching to 50 pages, almost 50 percent longer that initially projected — as a result of super-strong ad sales.

The “where to eat” section lists eight restaurants, all downtown, from Miss Albany Diner to Franklin’s Tower, and there’s a seven-paragraph minifeature on Angelo’s 677 Prime. While the traditional journalist in me cringes to see what appears to be the identical photo appearing in both the 677 Prime item and in the full-page, $15,000 advertisement for Prime on the facing page, I suppose that’s the way things work with these halfbreed sections.

It’s not editorially independent — how many ads area business, organizations, groups and governments bought dictated how long the spread would run — but there are three writers credited on the numerous stories and sidebars, most of which read well and don’t sound as if they were penned by advertisers or their PR people.

And there’s no arguing with Robert Van Amburgh, executive assistant to Mayor Jerry Jennings, who told my colleague Tim O’Brien at Thursday’s launch event at Jack’s Oyster House, “This represents the most significant advertising and PR the city has ever received.”

The airline estimates 4 million people will thumb through the magazine during April. As of Sunday (4/1), the spread also is online here.